Help Wanted
by princesshyuuga01
Summary: Never in her life had Tenten felt such strong attraction at a first meeting. But she needed to keep her hormones under control and not confuse what it was that she had been hired for. She was to be taking care of Uchiha Itachi's children...not her own sinfully inappropriate desires. Desires? Oh god, had her interest transcended into that already? [Rated M]
1. An Unusual Proposal

**Help Wanted**

**Chapter One – An Unusual Proposal**

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><p><strong>Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirm their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment—that which they cannot anticipate<strong>

**- Sun Tzu**

Uchiha Itachi impatiently lifted the final sheet of paper, scanned it in a second and even more impatiently tossed it aside. "I'm looking for someone with a little more experience," he dismissed tersely, his wide sensual mouth tightening with annoyance, lancing a look of displeasure.

The brunette girl swallowed, glancing down at the rejected folder before her.

The first time she looked into the man's eyes, Tenten knew she was in trouble. They were the deepest and darkest shade of charcoal that she had ever seen, framed by long, silky lashes, set beneath a pair of equally silky black brows. And they appeared to be looking into her soul, trying to find out what sort of a person she was before she had even spoken.

"If I hadn't the requisite credentials, someone else would be sitting across from you, Mr. Uchiha," she reasoned professionally, seemingly unperturbed by his repudiation.

"Your stated age leaves your qualifications in question, Miss Momochi," he told her pointedly, exercising the same expert cool that she was trying to maintain. "You are but a child."

His voice had sharpened, still a low rumble in his throat but with an added edge, and his beautifully sculpted brows drew together over his eyes.

"Age is but a number, sir," she countered lightly.

He arched a fascinated brow at her and ran a calculating gaze over her face. "A number that is of grave significance to me," he assured her sternly.

Tenten shifted uncomfortably in her seat, feeling the timbre of his voice rattling the very air in her lungs. Oh, hell his voice was sexy, coming from deep, deep down his throat. Everything about the man set off alarm bells, and stirred her deepest emotions.

It was uncanny.

She had kept these feelings rigidly in check all the way through high school, only for him to disassemble the locks and bolts with a mere glance from those lazy onyx eyes of his.

"It says here that you're twenty-one," he said with a hint of incredulity, more to himself rather than to her.

Tenten nodded, feeling certain that, in that moment, if she dared to speak, her voice would give her away. Never in her life had she felt such strong attraction at a first meeting. But she needed to get a grip on herself. She would be taking care of this man's children not her own sinfully inappropriate desires.

Desires?

Oh god, had her interest transcended into that already?

She wondered for a brief moment whether it would be advisable to work for a man who could do this much damage before she even got the chance to know him.

Perhaps she ought to turn and run.

"You're not what I expected," he admitted. "But you come highly recommended," he raised a brow as he said it. "Though at your age, I doubt you will be up to the job," he added crisply.

Tenten sucked in a deep breath, taking umbrage. "Mr. Uchiha," she declared, staring at him full in the face. "I can assure you that I am more than up to the job." She thrust an envelope into his face. "Here are my references, may they quell your doubts."

He didn't so much as look at it, "I decide if you're up to the job, not the other way around," he pointed out sternly.

She clasped her hands in her lap, realizing that she was reacting like the child he clearly saw her as. Tenten eased further back into the chair and crossed her legs, "Of course sir," she agreed grudgingly, but managed to keep the bite out of her voice.

She desperately needed to keep her cool if she wanted to land this job. It was the only one that she was certain she could manage. Plus it paid well, entitled her to a roof over her head and three hot meals per day.

It was perfect for her, especially given a certain situation that she had found herself in.

There was a moment of oppressive silence and Tenten busied her gaze with taking in the decor of his office though she much preferred ogling its handsome owner.

It was a huge suite converted into a home office, complete with a monstrous mahogany desk, a leather director's chair and a matching black leather lounge suite design to make whoever set foot in the giant room at home.

She had ignored the comfy-looking sofa and settled for the solitary chair opposite his desk, her back ramrod straight. She hadn't come here to get cosy and comfortable, she came to do business.

But that thought flew out the window the moment he had stepped into the room in his well tailor black suit that did little to hide the powerful body beneath it. She knew he must have caught her gawking at his broad shoulders and the perfectly chiseled planes of his face. Because his first comment upon entering the room had been, "Do you look at everyone like they are from another planet?"

She did her best to suppress the blush that seemed to have started from the tail of her spine, stretching up to cheeks, but it was to no avail, her skin coloured with embarrassment.

A light wind entered the room through the parted binds by the window and rustled a few strands of his long, dark, satiny tresses. A light scowl darkened his features as he sought to correct the issue with a flick of his hand.

It was then that she noticed the absence of a wedding band and there was no tan line to indicate that his finger had actually accomodated one before.

It baffled her.

And man of his callibre and good looks should not be unmarried. Heck, he should not exist. He was impossibly-impeccably sculpted and proportioned, like the very gods themselves had taken extra care in putting him together. He must be a thorn in other men's sight and every woman's dream.

But Tenten deduced, she had never dreamt that good before.

"Do you smoke?" Itachi suddenly asked, his hooded gaze trapping her brown ones in a stare down that sent something jolting throughout her being.

The intensity of it caused her voice to fail her, so she simply had to resort to shaking her head.

"Are you involved with anyone?"

She knew these were routine questions but she hardly saw what that one had to do with anything.

It was as if he read her mind, because he expanded, "In the event that you may be needing time off."

"Isn't time off, sort of a right?" questioned Tenten, her earthen eyes sparking dramatically, her tone was sharper than she had intended. Possibly because of the way her senses were all over the place.

Dark eyes narrowed and a muscle jerked dangerously in his jaw. "You haven't answered the question."

Tenten looked at him boldly, her chin high. "If you must know, there is no one. But I'm sure you knew that, you were very thorough with your specifics."

He gave a very slight lift of his shoulders, "Not thorough enough apparently."

She drew a swift breath, "I don't see why my age should be such a bother to you."

"Tenten," he said seriously, "May I call you Tenten?"

She nodded, her stomach doing somersaults at the way her name rolled of his tongue. He made it sound different and incredibly sexy. "That's fine," she answered stiffly, not looking at him.

Her hormones were behaving badly. And it annoyed her because this wasn't like her.

His scowl darkened. "You boast good qualifications and excellent references," he reiterated tightly. Vital energy, constrained for too long, had him on his feet, pacing the confines of his home office. "But you are far too young," he reminded with a bite.

"Mr. Uchiha," she said firmly, a hairsbreadth away from losing her cool. She really needed this job and was not going let something as irrelevant as age stop her from getting it.

"Itachi," he corrected. "Shall we take a walk?"

Tenten held no objections as she hurried at his heels through miles of corridors. It was a struggle just to keep up, his long legs, in danger of taking him away from her.

She devoured him with her eyes, noting the way his suit stretched across his broad muscular back, the way his pants were similarly taut over his behind and hip, emphasising once again, his athletic physique.

She inhaled deeply, needing to focus on something else. She settled on the French windows as they passed an airy corridor that opened out on to a patio area filled with florets of every colour and species imaginable.

They passed by many rooms, but the doors were kept shut so she couldn't identify which rooms belonged to his children. But the entire house looked to be furnished by an interior designer with no thoughts for comfort, only aesthetic beauty.

"I was the only one at the agency that met most of your peculiar prerequisite," she told him, needing to make conversation because the silence was too deafening. "I don't see why age should be a limiting factor. I'm as good as it gets."

He stopped so abruptly that Tenten cannoned into him, taken aback when his strong arms steadied her and those mesmerizing dark eyes locked into hers. She actually stopped breathing for a few seconds and gazes into their magical depths. It took a moment to compose herself when she realized what she had been doing.

Her olfactory cells relished the invasion of the most irresistable cologne she had ever come across. It was strong like Itachi himself, but not overpowering. And she knew it would linger long after he was gone, the same went for the imprint his hand on her.

"Are you worried that I may not be able to manage your children?" she inclined her head, stepping back.

"There's always the possibility," he told her fiercely.

Silence swept between them once more and it stirred something unpleasant in Tenten's gut.

"Are they difficult, Mr. Uchiha?" she enquired. "I'll have you know that I am more than capable of handling—"

He lifted his shoulders and let them drop again, slowly. "I have no children, Miss Momochi," he said, cutting her off.

She couldn't hide her shock; it rippled through her in violent little waves. "You have no children?" she choked. "Then why do you need a nanny? Why would you need me?"

Tenten held her breath as she waited for his answer. The very air around her changed. It had thickened until breathing was virtually impossible. The silence between them lengthened, and then he pinned her with such an intense expression in his onyx eyes that she truly couldn't breathe, couldn't even move.

"To bear them," he answered simply.

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><p><strong>AN: I know I shouldn't be posting new stories when I have so many ongoing ones, but fuck it these ideas keep coming! This story is dedicated to a dear friend of mine who is no longer on fanfiction but has gotten me into the ItaTen fever! It's such a pity, collaborating on this with her would have been an honour! I miss her :'(**

**Review if you'd like this to continue. Feel free to swing by my page to check out my other works :) I'm Tenten obsessed so she's featured in 80% of my stories. Reviews?**


	2. The Unconventional Compromise

**Help Wanted**

**Chapter Two – The Unconventional Compromise**

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><p><em><strong>Desperation will drive you to do things you know will never make you whole again and even to lose the very thing you're desperate for.<strong>_

— _**Laura Miller**_

Dark lashes flipped up in bewilderment over startled brown eyes and Tenten froze in her tracks. Her mouth gaped open in shock.

She released her breath in a sudden startled hiss and collided with Itachi's uncertain yet somehow severe gaze. Paralyzed to the spot by that stunning proposition, she merely gazed back at him with huge disbelieving eyes, all the colour bleeding from her complexion. She was certain she hadn't heard him correctly. He could not seriously think—could not imagine—

Nothing in the job description had indicated anything of such nature.

The ensuing silence was impregnated with the hair prickling sense that a bomb had just gone off. Itachi reveled in its intensity. He looked largely unrattled, seemingly in his element, "Like I said, you wouldn't be up to the job," he quipped, his mouth twisting disdainfully.

Tenten understood why her mind was reeling, but what was to be held accountable for her galloping heart—faster than any racehorse? Something unpleasant ripped through her stomach, his taunting words cutting her to ribbons. In that moment her mind and body felt oddly out of sync with each other, the smug half a smirk he wore disrupting their connection.

"Mr. Uchiha I am neither a whore nor a brood mare," she managed to get out. It took every ounce of her self-command to succumb the urge not to slap him. Did this tall, dark and disgustingly handsome devil think he was so special that he could ask her to reduce herself to nothing but a rented baby maker and expect an open invitation? "In case you've forgotten, please revisit my résumé," she instructed tartly.

His face was as expressive as a boulder, "Had I been looking for a whore or a brood mare, as you put it..." This time his face loosened a bit, only to hint his disgust, one dark brow raised in deliberate arrogance. "...You wouldn't have gotten this interview," he said it almost as tightly as the muscles in his face.

Tenten didn't know why she took such a heavy knock from what he said. His comment should have been taken as a compliment, heck, whether he thought she had appeal or not shouldn't matter to her. So why had she felt so insulted—so stung?

Moreover, why was she concerning herself with such trivial matters when he had practically assumed her womb was up for hire? And like he had been making a supposition about the weather too?

She stifled a plaintive cry, burying her face into her palms mentally, but she composed herself. "Mr. Uchiha—" she started, looking away as she spoke for fear that he would see too much in her face.

"Itachi," he reminded her broodingly.

Her breath caught in her throat as she helplessly raised her gaze yet again to the darkest, blackest, most piercingly intense eyes she had ever beheld. "—there is a brothel not too far out of town, I'm sure you'll find someone there willing to compromise," she finished off, with a painful swallow.

She couldn't understand why a man as divine as himself would stoop to the level of contracting someone to have his child. Heck, he should have an array of supermodels ready for him at the click of his fingers.

"How amusing," he drawled but his voice hinted otherwise.

Tenten straightened out the imaginary crease in her skirt, scoffing at the obvious attempt she had made to dress up nicely and put up a good front. She had spent every last cent she had on the black linen suit she wore and now she was starting to regret it. She did however feel good it in. It looked rather smart, the straight skirt and button-through no-sleeve, no collar lined jacket showed up her curvaceous frame without emphasizing too much on her bust.

She had opted to not wear any stockings, partly because the temperature had been unbearably hot lately, but mostly because she thought her long tanned legs looked just as good naked. Especially since she had them waxed and had rubbed oil into them till the golden skin was glowing and soft. Her hair had been left down, only the sides caught up with brown combs—that were hard to detect amongst her chestnut mane—to show the pearls in her ears, the rest trailing down her back in a mass of unfettered waves.

A pink gloss shimmered on her full mouth but her eye make-up had been a bit more dramatic with dark, smoky eye shadow and lashings of black mascara to give her big brown eyes what she had hoped was a mysterious look. But not too mysterious, she was vying for the position of a nanny, not a mistress.

Or so she thought.

She gave a nervous bark of laughter dissolving what could only be described as solid silence. "It's a rather unusual route for a man to take when seeking someone to share his bed."

Itachi branded her with a pitying look down the long, arrogant length of his nose. "I have no interest in relationships, casual or otherwise." if it were possible, the grim line of his mouth flattened even more.

Tenten felt of quiver of trepidation down the length of her spine at the warning she sensed hiding behind the mildness of his tone. Something ominous was lurking on the horizon of the sudden dangerous stillness, and the dark scowl upon his brow. His whole demeanour commanded her mouth shut.

"I only need an heir," he declared as if it was the most normal demand to make of anyone. "And unless you are prepared to give me that, then I have no use for your services."

"No use for my services? My services!" she repeated scathingly, giving a disgusted little snort. "You—you are absolutely unbelievable!" Her expression was indignantly outraged.

She had spent her very last dime on her outfit and transportation, only to arrive and discover that the vacancy she had applied for apparently required the filling her vacant uterus.

This had be one of those beginner's tests where the new recruit was provoked in order to assess how well he or she handled impossible situations. Perhaps Itachi's children were pranksters and he wanted to evaluate whether or not she had a high enough tolerance to deal. That had to be it.

"You can't possibility be serious?" she drew in a steadying, rationalizing breath.

"I am," he acknowledged unrepentantly.

The brunette did not retort. She was too staggered by the raw honesty in those two little words. Her chest clenched so tight for a second that she felt in serious danger of fainting. She willed it down.

She was not that naïve to be unknowledgeable of how heirs were made. And she was also well aware that she ought not to let the direness of her situation force her to rush blindly into any agreement solely because she sought the protection the arrangement could undoubtedly offer her.

She may have left everything else behind.

But she still had her pride.

She had her dignity.

And she would take them with her wherever she ran—for as long as she had to run. Besides, there were certain things a girl wasn't supposed to do for money, no matter how desperately she needed it.

Tenten cast another glance at Itachi. His straight nose and full lips gave him a profile that spoke of…she dared think it—sensual knowledge and promise. He gave no indication of knowing he was under scrutiny. Then his head turned and those eyes snagged hers.

Dead On.

The heat flare upwards from the pit of her belly and Tenten turned away. She could almost imagine the mocking, knowing tug of somewhat of a grin on his lips.

"If you will please…" her voice trembled. "…show me out."

He was suddenly standing very close. Too close. Close enough for her to be aware of everything about him—from the dark hair that fell so attractively across his brow, to the width of his shoulders, the elegance of his clothed waist and thigh, to the highly polished shoe upon his feet.

He caught her wrist and Tenten started visibly. His fingers seemed to burn her flesh where they touched, and the quiver she felt down her spine was one of complete physical awareness, rather than the revulsion she wished to feel.

She chided herself. What was it about this man that she should react this way? What spell had he cast upon her that made his inappropriate proposal so tempting, other than the fact that she needed a cover?

"Like you had pointed out, Tenten…" he said her name like an endearment. "…You were the only candidate to have matched most of my provisos for this job."

He echoed her earlier words. But coming from him after hearing what he truly wanted her for, they had a completely different meaning, with an undertone that made Tenten's insides feel as if they were melting under the heat. She moistened dry lips, shaking her head as she strove to hold a grip back unto reality.

"Job? Is that what you consider it?" she was incredulous, snatching her hand away.

Her breathing became low and shallow, and she couldn't break her gaze away from the darkness of his, it felt as if he were slowly, inexorably, drawing her towards him by the sheer force of his will.

"Perhaps we should step back into my office," he urged her on, his hand finding the small of Tenten's back to steer her back down the corridors.

She really wished he hadn't done that because the swell of her breasts suddenly surged making the bodice of her top feel eerily fitting. "I thought I wasn't up to the job?" she asked, feeling like someone else had said the words.

Once inside the safety of his office, he brusquely indicated to the seat she had previously occupied and sat down at his desk. "I'm afraid that you have no other choice than to be up to the job," he said blankly, smoothly pulling out a sheaf of papers. He handed one set to Tenten and kept one himself.

She gazed down at them, and then looked back at him. Mesmerized. By the soft threat of his voice. By those dark, compelling eyes. Eyes that, in the sunlight that filtered through the open window, seemed to reflect gold flecks in their depths. Eyes that saw through the sham that she was.

"What is this?" she enquired throatily.

His lips slightly curved upwards, in a devastatingly breathtaking smirk that left her lungs airless. "I always take a thorough background check of whomever I decide to let into my house," he stated, turning a couple pages.

Tenten sweat dropped.

"I found it rather odd that when your file came to me, the agency couldn't verify that you worked for them."

She drew in a controlling breath, her hands clenching around the papers. "These sorts of mix up happen all the—"

He flicked a lean hand, cutting her off with the violence of his gesture. He was looking at her, his face carved from granite, eyes so harsh and forbidding that Tenten couldn't see any lightness or tenderness in their depths. "You would have fooled me, except your age gave you away," he admitted. "No one this young boast that much job experience."

"Do not underestimate me Mr. Uchiha. I've been doing this since I was twelve," she said tightly, folding her arms.

"Doing what exactly?"

Tenten shook with emotion, and restrained her urge to fly across the room and smack that supercilious look off his face. He knew nothing about her circumstances. "I…uh…babysitting," she hated the naked hesitancy in her voice.

"I'm not looking for a babysitter."

She looked at Itachi warily. A muscle pulsed in his jaw. His raw masculine virility reached out to grab her and she had to fight it. "No, you're looking for a baby popper," she countered almost childishly.

"Are you aware that posing as an agent for any organization is a felony?" His words flayed her, but she held herself together, even when he flicked a searing glance up and down her body. "I am willing to turn a blind eye to the matter, only if you—"

She felt the colour draining from her face as she struggled to take in what he was suggesting. "My body isn't up for hire," she breathed in horror.

Itachi went ominously still and said silkily, "Then I suppose, I'll just have to turn you in."

Tenten's mouth opened and closed ineffectually as the full weight of this man's power sank in. The lengths he was willing to go to…all because she met a couple of his twisted requirements; blood type, height, weight, dark eyes etc. She wondered why he fancied her plain looks, but put it down to him not wanting a mate with features striking enough to cancel out the Uchiha genes in his child.

He said he wasn't looking for a relationship which was probably why he hadn't a wife. But it was a little puzzling that he would resort to such desperate measures. Any woman would be content with sharing his bed and bearing his child, why her? Why seek out a nanny—one he figured was an obvious fraud at that?

A look of intense cynicism crossed Itachi's face. He'd expected that response. "I didn't think so." His voice became brisk. "Now if you'll just sign page twenty-three," he said handing her a pen.

The girl took it from him semi-consciously, thanking the heavens that she was sitting because her legs were buckling. Her hands instinctively went to her flattened middle. She couldn't afford to go to prison but she couldn't do this either, no matter how badly she needed the money.

Getting arrested was out of the question, it would only present _**him**_ with the opportunity to bail her out—to find her again…

A woman on the run could not afford to commit to something as binding as a child. It would only serve to slow her down, keep her rooted in one place. Still, she needed a place to stay, needed a cover and judging by how scandalous this little arrangement was, Itachi would probably keep her hidden away—safe.

Tenten tilted up her chin slightly and forced out through numb lips, with as much dignity as she could muster, "When do I start?"

Itachi watched as the colour drained from her cheeks. Saw out of the corner of his yes the way her hands tightened on the pen. Inwardly he had to hand it to her. She used her expressive features well, no doubt aware of how she could deceive people with them. But the scripts had been flipped and luckily for her she suited her casted role perfectly, or it would have been a trip down to the police station.

"Right away," he said casually.

Her lips fell apart as she struggled to hold back a bubble of near hysteria. "Right away?" Tenten resounded with a gasp.

He nodded once; the fierce look in his eyes was one of exasperation.

She mentally slapped her hand against her forehead.

Fuck me.

No pun intended.

_**When they face desperation…human beings become animals.**_

— _**Dan Brown**_

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><p><strong>AN: I was a little skeptic about starting this story because upcoming chapters maybe very awkward, considering…things =^.^= But I could not believe the response to this story! I am so glad that you guys are enjoying it. I will be further clearing up any issue that may have raised eyebrows so not to worry. I just had to get these two prologue-like chapters out first. **

**Keep the Reviews coming and I'll keep updating.**


	3. The Contracts

**Help Wanted**

**Chapter Three – The Contracts**

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><p>"<em><strong>By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected"<strong>_

— _**Dale Carnegie**_

At his declaration Itachi half expected to meet Tenten's gaze and see a look of sickening outrage but it hadn't surfaced, instead her brown eyes opened wide with shock, unease and a hint of surrender, the colour draining clear from her face.

He watched her gaze narrow in on him. She turned her head slightly and leaned forward, almost as though she'd experienced a hearing loss. "Right away?" The enquiry exploded from her parched lips.

"Is there a problem?" he asked disinterestingly, noting the way her slender fingers trembled while she blindly turned the pages before her. The poor girl must still be shivering at the knowledge that he had twigged at her deception so quickly.

But he knew Tenten was an impostor the very moment she came to him with her ostentatious résumé and acclaimed references, especially considering the fact that his specifications had been purely genetically related. There had been no need to provide information about job experience and qualifications for he hadn't ordered an actual nanny.

It was then that he figured, not only was she a fraud, but one who obviously had no clue what she was forging. Because the company with which she falsely associated her craft didn't actually offer childcare services; it was in the illicit business of selling and contracting surrogate mothers.

She stared at him, an anguished hope in her eyes that spoke of immense inner turbulence, and he instantly knew she wasn't immune to the deal he had put on the table. Money won. It always won if you tapped into the weakness that would give way to it.

Tenten bit down on her bottom lip, battling to get her frantic heart-rate under control.

"Not at all," she stammered at the realization that her words vocalized the exact thoughts of the buzzing body beneath her expensive get-up. It shouted _No objections!_But she was pretty sure those were her hormones talking. She needed to step back and think this through very carefully, without the presence of his daunting body tempting her.

He leaned across the desk towards her, his rich charcoal eyes as unimpressed as they were challenging. She swallowed. She had never thought eyes could be threatening, not until now; his scorching gaze seemed to suck the very air from the room.

From what she heard, Uchiha Itachi was a tyrant, the A-grade boss from hell. What she hadn't been made aware of was that he was also A-grade sex on legs.

She had read about him, seen photographs of him, but what made her inner turmoil more savage was how stunningly handsome he really was in the flesh. The thick, wavy, black hair, dark eyes, a strong male face that didn't have one unpleasing feature capping a tall, perfectly proportioned physique which carried the perfectly tailored suit he wore with distinction…it was so wickedly unfair! The man had absolutely everything! She hardly resented the fact that he had a sexual impact on her. It would be rather strange if he didn't.

Testosterone radiated out from him like a magnetic field. He wore it as easily as his designer suit. He wore it as easily as the mantle of power that was almost tangible around him.

The fight in her eyes wavered into a sea of vulnerable uncertainty—the need for no break in her money-chain warring with a mountain of doubts about what she might be getting into by putting herself in his power.

She knew that accepting his offer could be dangerous to her well-being. But it didn't have to be. She was a strong woman and this was essentially a negotiation, after all.

"Then there's no need to complain, is there?" he asked, moving closer, a dangerous glint in his eye, and his voice a silken noose she felt tightening by the second. "Now if you'll just sign the contract..." he instructed.

Heat flooded back into her cheeks in sudden outrage as she fingered with a sheet of paper, reading the words and finally recognizing them for what they were. "This specifically speaks of a son. There's no way to guarantee that I'll have a boy."

It felt weirdly intimate just talking about having his baby.

"There isn't," he admitted flatly, lifting a hand, feather light fingertips grazing the hot skin of her wrist before the entire thing settled over her small hand.

The gesture shocked her into stillness, but it was the stillness of a tightly coiled spring, nerves twanging at the suppression of the movement of her hand from beneath his. Her heart was thundering. She couldn't tear her gaze away from his or her face away from his mesmerising touch. She was attracted to him. She was really, really dangerously attracted to him. And everything female within her quivered in delight at the prospect of being possessed by him.

From over the top of the papers, Tenten's chocolate eyes flicked over Itachi's face, they narrowed in scrutiny which took in every visible clue as to his mood. It remained unreadable.

"But either way, you will give me son," he told her with cutting assurance.

Her lips parted in apparent disbelief, no air made it to or from her lungs. At that moment, everything went static. There was no cellular activity, not a vein nor artery busy with blood flow. She was physically inert, wishing she could evade the riveting intensity of his eyes, but determined not to appear even more disturbed by him than she had already revealed.

"I will?" she managed to mutter, the tip of her pen moving at its own accord on the paper.

For a long, long, moment he said nothing. Her toes curled with tension. Her mind whirled with dangerous possibilities. What if he leaned forward and kissed her? What would she feel? The terrible part was that she didn't think she could resist if he did make the move and that could mean all sorts of trouble for her in the later run.

"You will," he finally said and with a quickly sucked-in breath added, "No matter how many tries it takes."

His words resonated in her head and Tenten was pretty sure most of the blood in her head had flowed right out, leaving her brain empty and her ears ringing.

She felt dizzy and faint and was still not sure she'd understood him. Her throat went dry. Unless she was delusional, it sounded like he intended for her to conceive the old-fashioned way. And the more she thought about it, the more she was all for it. Especially with him sitting so close, holding her hand and unconsciously rubbing his thumb along the pulse point at her wrist.

Tiny zings of excitement charged through her body with every move of his thumb, driving her crazy in all the best ways.

But then common sense reigned in and her eyes widened. She jagged up her chin, incensed. "You're not looking for a one off deal are you? You're looking for a wife." Tenten spluttered in a startled hiss.

Hot colour whooshed into her face, but there was no shock in her eyes. She had already grasped the deal he was holding out. It might be smart to back away from having a baby with him. After all, if she did agree, it would mean entering into a deeply personal relationship with a complete stranger that she wasn't sure she would ever recover from.

The plain truth was that she would be easily dispensable from his life. And the bitter truth was…he probably wouldn't be from hers—after this.

"Not a wife. Someone to bear my children," he corrected, as if it were some kind of defense against her accusation, and he slashed one hand through the air towards her. "There's a difference."

He rattled the words out like machine-gun fire and she drew her hand from beneath his, feeling like she had overstepped a mark.

For a moment her face went totally blank, as though a switch had been thrown and defensive shutters had instantly clicked into place. He watched her labouring to construct a somewhat apologetic expression—a sheer act of will, against her natural grain.

Her eyes took on a pleading look, begging for something he couldn't grant her. "This contract needs to be tweaked or I'm not signing it," she gruffly handed him the sheaf of paper.

His mouth tilted into an ironic smirk that kicked her heart into thumping like a drum. "But you already have," he took it from her, indicating with his index finger where she had blindly scribbled her signature.

"What?" she croaked in astonishment.

He smirked again, this time his perfectly sculptured mouth broke open to show a row of perfect white teeth. "You're hired," Itachi declared, his rich male voice making her ears tingle.

"But—?"

"With that out of the way," he said abruptly, swiveling in his chair to place the contract in a folder and lock it away in his drawer. "I'll show you where you'll be staying," he got to his feet again and she followed him like a lost puppy.

Tenten nodded dumbly, her mind still reeling. Her brain needed a blast of oxygen. Everything was happening so fast and she couldn't remember having initiated anything. The tension inside her was like a compressed spring, needing release. It took considerable willpower to walk at a normal pace, maintaining an air of dignity. His sexual magnetism made her insides quiver as she passed him.

Her legs, however, did perform their function of holding her up and she was out of his office in just a few nerve jangling moments.

"I don't understand any of this," she choked out, finally turning to face him. "I thought I was too young. And you know I'm not really a nanny, so why are you—?"

He held up a silencing hand, his shoulders taking on a squared edge, "Because I had already paid good money for you."

She gaped, her heart breaking into a suspended state of shock but galloping on the spot. "Paid good money for me?" she echoed in confusion.

"The agency isn't in the business of contracting nannies Tenten," he told her pointedly. "It sells young surrogates and even though you couldn't be verified, you were sold to me." He paused to let that sink in before adding, "But I knew you were a fraud the instant you stepped into my office flashing your credentials. I merely played along," he admitted unashamedly. "The agency never contracts women without at first prepping them of what they're truly being hired for and you had absolutely no clue what that was."

She glared at him, the wheels of her mind going round and round in a fierce search for something. Then she found it, "It sounds no different from prostitution. Is that even legal?"

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I can assure you that it isn't."

Anger spurted off her tongue, big brown eyes huge with something bordering on disgust and hope. "Then I would have had a case even if you had taken me in to the feds?"

"Yes you would have," he answered, flat and toneless. "But not anymore," He deliberately delivered those words in a provocative drawl, reveling in the betraying heat that coloured her cheeks again. "You've already signed my contract and unless you've got no problem being sued for everything you're worth, then feel free to dishonor it."

Tenten's head jerked back on the slender stem of her neck as she looked up at Itachi. "You—you can't mean that!" she protested.

But even as she protested, something fierce and elemental was flaring up inside her—a desire, an excitement, a wild surge of female longing that shook her body with its force and shamed her pride with what it said about her. She couldn't want him—and most especially she could not want him under circumstances that should have been making her recoil with revulsion.

"I do mean it," he assured her.

She shook her head, wishing she had refused him, sickened by his view of her—a woman who could be bought. Not in ordinary circumstances, she thought fiercely. If she hadn't been so strapped for cash, desperate enough to fake her profession—so keen to run away then she wouldn't have found herself in this position. But who knew hijacking someone's job application could have landed her in such a situation?

There were worse things than being blackmailed into having someone's kids, however. Much worse.

She swallowed down the surge of bile which had erupted from her churning stomach and took a deep breath. "Since you bought me," she made air quotes as she said it. "Does that mean I won't be getting a salary?"

"Like all other employees you're entitled to a salary," he strode off again nudging his head as an indication that she was to follow him. "Since you aren't in fact employed by the agency and won't be getting a cut of what I initially paid for you, then I suppose you'll have to be paid a heftier sum," he said as if it were any consolation.

"I'm an employee?" she laughed dryly.

He nodded his dark head. Inevitably the power of his sexuality tugged at her, even when he was pushing a deal that made her feel like a second-class woman, only fit for his bed because her features suited some twisted requirements of the women he envisioned to produce his children, tossing money at her to sweeten that humiliating truth.

Itachi stopped outside a door in the corridor, "This is where you'll be staying. I expect to see you at dinner by seven."

Nodding again, Tenten opened the door. By the time she had closed it she knew that Itachi had gone—not because she had seen him go, but because somehow she had sensed it. The air around her and her own body's reaction told her that he was no longer there.

Finding Itachi Uchiha sexually attractive was understandable, and she tried to tell herself that to quell her growing panic about how she was going to cope living so closely—so intimately with him. Obviously such a stupendously male man was bound to have that effect on most women. But she was not most women, and she was desperately afraid of her vulnerability.

It was the primary reason she had mindlessly signed that demeaning contract.

He had too much of an impact on her senses—so much that even her skin could register his presence or the lack of it and it was frighteningly dangerous territory. Itachi was a callous and unfeeling brute with no measure of humanity or understanding.

She had to give him credit however, for catching on to her so quickly and coming up with a plan to ensure that his money hadn't gone down the drain. But her own deception had inflicted a wound on her that she would have to lick for the rest of her life. Could she swallow the pain of being nothing but a hired baby making machine and then leave her children behind as the contract dedicate she would have to?

Just keep thinking of the advantages he had laid out, she savagely told herself. They were very solid advantages. Aside from the money and protection the deal offered, there would be worry-free time for her to plot her next big move. All she had to do was pop two little suckers out and not get too tangled up emotionally with Itachi.

Besides, how bad could it be to have him as her lover?

The answer to that came a couple days later, after they were advised by an appointed doctor that the artificial inseminating procedure the Uchiha had requested—because he would not share his bed with a complete stranger—was not going on work due to the presence of Tenten's hymen and irregular cycle.

The news had left the brunette with a squirmy, excited but terrifying feeling which never left the pit of her tummy. But Itachi had been far from polite about the whole issue. The next morning saw him slamming down another sheaf of paper before her at breakfast.

"What is this?" her eyes flicked a size wider.

He growled low in his throat, settling himself in his chair. The ire tightness that rigidified his features ever since the discovery was still in place. "I don't want you to get confused with what we're doing here," he said gingerly, a line of anger slanting his brows.

She blinked at him, "Of course not."

"Do not expect a candle lit dinner and soft music because you're a virgin," he rasped, making the word sound foul. The grim, fighting expression on his face slowly relaxed and the blaze of battle in his eyes dimmed as he gazed at her. "Just let me know when you're ovulating," he instructed tersely.

Tenten sighed. He was blunt and impossible. But she wouldn't have him any other way. She never knew when those black eyes would darken with anger or glint with triumph or shimmer with the all-enveloping charm he could summon at will—usually, in her case, when he'd said or done something to make her upset. He could turn any woman he momentarily fancied into a sex slave, resistance impossible, poor things.

Thankfully she would never have to face the acid test of having to resist him.

Or so Tenten thought…

The entire length of her body went rigid as deep shock claimed her when the import of the printed words penetrated her hitherto absent brain with the precision of a sharpened dagger.

It was yet another contract.

But this time it was regarding sex.

And the first few lines of the appendix did answer her earlier question about how bad of a lover Itachi Uchiha would be.

1. Kissing is personal and hence off limits.

2. There will be no caressing as I do not like to be touched.

3. There will be minimal foreplay.

4. You are to remain quiet; no whimpering, asking questions or making small talk during or after the act.

5. There is to be absolutely no fidgeting.

6. Sex is to be scheduled; spontaneity is unaccepted.

7. There will be no alcohol consumption before sex.

8. Any and all contraceptive methods are forbidden.

9. There is to be no sexual relations with any outside party.

10. Total obedience and diligence in carrying out sexual instructions.

Flushed and flustered, her heart bumping, Tenten continued down the list of rules and regulations of what was presumably the cruel art of baby making. Uchiha Itachi may as well be an acrobat because after reading, she was thoroughly convinced he would be one twisted fuck.

And this time, the pun was intended.

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><p><strong>AN: OMFG this story is generating so many great reviews, favourites and follows. I may have to start prioritizing updates and give you guys a chapter each week. I'm sorry if this chapter was a bit lame…I'm not particularly pleased with it. I just came back from the worst two weeks of my life and I'm feeling a little out of it. But I decided you guys have waited long enough for an update so I whipped this up.**

**Please Review to keep me motivated.**


	4. The Preliminaries

**Help Wanted**

**Chapter Four – The Preliminaries**

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><p>"<em><strong>You know my name, not my story. You've heard what I've done, but not what I've been through.<strong>_

— _**Jonathan Anthony Burkett**_

Tenten shifted uneasily in her seat, her face reddening as though something like an electric charge had skittered through her. Refusing to let her tautened nerves get the better of her, she spoke, deploring the wretched high-pitched squeak her breaking voice sometimes embarrassed her with. "I would be more than happy to point you in the direction of Konoha's finest morgue—"

Itachi settled his coffee mug aside and pinned her with his black gaze. His lean, strong face was taut with barely concealed impatience and there was an aura of predatory stillness about the honed, whiplash tight, power-packed frame that suggested a tendency to leap on anyone who stepped out of line and tear them apart limb from limb.

His icy black eyes lingered on the pulsing vein at the side of her neck. His handsome face cold and forbidding, his voice composed. "Excuse me?"

A handful.

That was what Tenten had labeled him from the very beginning. Clearly he was accustomed to getting his own way. Someone needed to teach him that life wasn't like that. And irrespective of her confusing sizzle of attraction to the man, she was capable of putting her foot down if circumstances warranted it.

This was definitely one of those circumstances.

Who conjures up a contract dictating how sex was to be done? A man who likes to be in control of every aspect of his life, a voice in her head answered.

Despite his devastating looks, he truly was a bully, she realized. And it was time she stood up for herself—something she had neglected to do her entire life and look at where it got her.

The irony of her situation was laughable—a trafficked runaway who ended up trafficking her own self. If there was ever such a thing as freedom in captivity, then she supposed this was the closet one could come to experiencing it.

"—because it would appear as if you've got a fetish for fucking the dead," Tenten spluttered, snatching a ragged breath because there had been a severe case of miscommunication between her brain and her tongue. She had no intentions of getting her point across so unseemingly.

If he were a lesser man Uchiha Itachi would have choked on his coffee. He probably would have raked his thick black hair with angry fingers too. Instead, he clenched his fist and shoved them deep into his jacket pockets, not willing to show the slightest indication he felt anything other than indifference to the girl's ridiculous barb.

She grimaced.

He lowered his eyes to watch her mouth take on that grimacing tilt. It was only as he watched it settle back into a straight line again that he realized it was actually a quite beautifully shaped mouth. A stray strand of her chestnut hair whipped across her sun-kissed features and trapped between the soft curve of her coral pink lips.

Gripped by an irrational yearning to wipe away the lock, his fingers twitched in his pockets, preparing to move, but she brushed the wisp of hair behind her ear before he had a chance to do it. The long, silky brownness of it fell in a tousled touchable mass to well below her shoulders.

Pretty shoulders, he noted—sleek of skin, warm with tan, partially concealed by the pink halter top that lovingly cradled truly superb, full and shapely breasts. In a moment of uncharacteristic loss of resolve, he imagined that they would fill his hands like ripe, succulent fruits, their tips hardening against the palm of his hand.

He probed her unsteady gaze, suddenly noticing the magnetic pull her eyes had. The rich, dark brown colour was framed with the most gorgeously thick, curling black eyelashes that managed to add an unexpected appeal to her face that he would never have allowed her before.

Internally shuddering, he pulled his mind away, banned it from the path it sought to follow.

Something twisted inside him—not sexual, but an ache of a different kind. Did she know how badly she was trembling? Or how that slender throat of hers worked like crazy each time she swallowed some of the tea?

"These rules are ridiculous Itachi, I may be naïve but I'm certain that's not how people make love," she dealt him a scathing appraisal, flushing but not backing down.

He cringed at her words. He had never made love to a woman. He'd bedded many. The sex had been satisfying. But to make love, he hardly knew where to begin. Yet it was probably a gift she deserved, given that she had been forcibly obliged to offer him something far more valuable than anything he could ever give to her—would ever give her.

He had never so much as kissed an innocent, and now he'd be taking one to bed—initiating her into a world where he's thought to be an absolute monster. He was torn between immense guilt at the realization that he would have to take her virginity, and a building rage at the thought that his own contract contrived to trap him. There was no backing out now, especially not when he had spend such a hefty sum to acquire her as his surrogate in the first place. His gut twisted, and guilt overrode the anger.

The girl made absolutely no sense to him. She didn't come across as being naïve or sheltered in any way. That she had agreed to enter into such an arrangement with him—not that he'd given her any other choice—without experience just added another piece to her personal puzzle.

He prided himself on being able to read people. His gut feeling had never failed him before. He had good intuition. But he was no closer to figuring her out, or her motives, than when he'd first discovered she'd come to him as a fraud.

What was her story? He wondered, not able to shake the image of a young girl going up against a world that had stolen her idealism and her emotional innocence. He didn't wish to be a part of that—part of that ugly world. And now he'd irrevocably be a part of it—would take that last piece of innocence—her physical innocence—for himself. He didn't plan on using it against her, but he had nothing to offer her either.

She was to bear his children, nothing more.

One of the reasons he'd so carefully avoided women with no experience was because they thought of love and sex as two things inextricably linked, and he honestly didn't have any of that kind of love available. Not anymore.

"Babies are the only things we'll be making Tenten," he corrected her, his voice edged. He despised the bluntness of his words, but he would not give her time to entertain fantasies of something beyond their arrangement.

The simple words of acknowledgement and grudging acceptance rocked through her like an atomic bomb. She put her hands instinctively on her flat belly. A shuddering breath shook her small shoulders.

"I know that," she bit out through a clenched jaw, and wished that she didn't feel the way she did—that she wasn't enslaved by whatever dark magic he wielded over her.

His scowled darkened. As a hint, it seriously raised his annoyance threshold. "So what is the problem?"

Tenten shook her head in disbelief and expelled her breath in a slow hiss. She was struggling to master a temper that was threatening to overwhelm her. She glanced down at the sheaf of paper before her. "You honestly don't see a problem?"

Itachi studied her with brooding dark ferocity, but he said nothing. In the humming quiet, she stared out the window at the garden and waited in vain for his response.

"Agalmatophilia is a paraphilia concerned with sexual attraction to a statue doll, mannequin or other similar figurative object," she explained, sending him an enervated look. "I'm not a mannequin Itachi—"

He frowned, dark eyes unlit by gold, narrowing in a piercing scrutiny that made her uncomfortable.

"—I'm not a mute either, and therefore cannot adhere to the terms you laid out in this contract," she delivered stiffly, her face going pink. Her mouth felt numb and peculiar. She really should have fought the nervous tension that had led her to swallow the hot tea like that. "I will not sign this."

For several nerve-wracking seconds he stared at her. His face remained grim. Her challenge wasn't working. She wasn't reaching him.

"There's a clause in the first contract that binds you to conceive solely on my terms, so it doesn't matter whether or not you sign that." Itachi shot at her with dark eyes that flashed as golden as the heart of a fire. "Just consider it a heads-up."

As an incendiary response leapt onto Tenten's tongue she swallowed it back and welded her lips closed, determined not to say anything before she had thought it through. But sheer shock was ricocheting through her in wave after wave. What had she gotten herself into?

She was shamefully conscious that a craving for money had reduced her to her present predicament. She had always heard the saying that money was the root of all evil. And, looking back to the twisted, reckless decision she had made, Tenten knew that in her case that pronouncement had proved all too true.

Because she had run away from a situation which had become untenable, knowing even then that she would be followed and eventually traced_..._

As the ever-present threat of being found and called to account for her behaviour assailed Tenten, her skin turned clammy with fear. And in her mind's eye then, when she was at her weakest, she would see _**his **_face, dark, devastating and dangerous.

She had gone the extra mile to escape the cruel fate that had awaited her. But she had gone that extra mile in entirely the wrong direction, she acknowledged wretchedly. How could she ever have believed that entering into such a deal with Itachi would do anything but add to her list of problems?

How could she ever have imagined that she could surrender all rights, hand over her own flesh and blood and agree never, ever to try and see her own child?

She had been wickedly and savagely deceived into signing that contract, Tenten reminded herself. How was she to know that her forged place of employment was actually involved with trading young girls?

A wave of disgust washed through Tenten and she pushed it down along with bitter memories. That Itachi would engage in commercial activity with such an unscrupulous organization both baffled and repulsed her.

She asked abruptly, "Why is it so important to have sex rules?" she felt dirty just saying the word.

His mouth thinned. His eyes flashed at her persistence, but he answered tightly, "To keep things professional."

Shock, disbelief and cold horror slammed into Tenten. He might as well have substituted '_professional' _with '_impersonal'_ because it was blatantly obvious from his contract.

Her mouth opened for a moment but nothing emerged. She couldn't articulate, but finally managed a strangled, "Professional?" Words failed her and she closed her mouth helplessly.

His mouth twisted.

Tenten tried to make sense of his words, an awful stomach-churning red mist of anger gripped her. "That's something you'd say to a prostitute—"

Itachi could see injured pride straighten her spine, the shock on her face.

"—and even they are expected to make noises and fidget," she said tapping on the paper before her. When the words that left her mouth impinged on Tenten's consciousness, she felt her cheeks go hot.

She did not just say that.

Silence lengthened and tautened between them. Electric awareness quivered in the air and Itachi shook his head slowly, a smirk curving his lips.

She flushed even hotter, mortified heat drenching her in an upward sweep. Much to her utter humiliation she knew it wasn't_ all _mortification. Some of it was pure_…thrill. _This man was doing nothing short of creating a nuclear reaction within her, comprehensively threatening everything she'd protected herself with for years.

He ran quick eyes over her, making her squirm inwardly before quirking a brow and saying mockingly, "You're not a prostitute are you?"

His cool voice cut through her like a knife. She gritted her jaw, giving him a stricken look of condemnation. "You know damn well that I'm not."

His gaze glittered and darkened. He leant forward too and asked softly, "Then why should we add theatrics to a simple act of exchange?"

She cringed at his choice of words.

They caused little short of an explosion of hurt within her. She tried desperately to block it out—the realization that even then—her brain froze at that implication. Her hands clenched tight on the table and she hid them on her lap.

"Look," Tenten began awkwardly but found that words failed her once more. She couldn't exactly tell him that he was frightening her.

He shrugged one broad shoulder nonchalantly, his gaze on hers not wavering for a second. "When the time comes, you'll have no other choice than to submit." His mouth tightened.

His gaze dropped to where she could feel her breast rising and falling with her breath.

He looked back up and her heart stopped. "And not because it's your job, but because of the inordinate amount of frustration I'm causing you."

She looked at him in shock. His face wasn't creased in hilarity, it was stone cold sober.

"I can smell it from here," he told her, sending a trail of reaction down her taut spinal cord.

Between Tenten's thighs she felt indecently damp. She coloured even more hotly. Could he really smell that? Did desire have a smell? The thought made her squirm, but also made her feel weak and achy. She scrambled out of her seat. Even whilst his bluntness caused her to lose her appetite it was whetting another—of a more potent kind.

She wanted him with a hunger that she'd always intellectualized as something she'd never experience. Except now she was. And it was ten million times worse than anything she could have ever imagined.

She felt sickened with self-disgust.

As she pushed past his chair he snaked out a hand and caught her wrist. She looked down, and he was looking right up at her, trapping her. "Sit down Tenten, we've got quite a few things to discuss," he shoved aside his plate and pulled her onto his lap, earning a startled gasp from the brunette.

She bit her lip, her belly clenching, her eyes widening. She could feel the stroke of each breath he took on the nape of her neck, making tingles run up and down her spine.

He grabbed his tablet, started it up and then scrolled through several pages to get to his list.

Tenten stared at the screen. He had divided his list into several main topics: Pre-pregnancy and Pregnancy. Post-pregnancy. She gave him points for taking an organized approach to life, but this was a bit much.

"I would like to go over the current issues that concern you and me," he informed her.

Her nerves jangled and her heart jolted uneasily against her ribcage. Something deeply ingrained within her kept her from moving a muscle, but it made her voice husky. "What about you and me?"

His voice was curt. "I think I need to clarify our duties and responsibilities to each other."

She felt like a trapped insect, flat on its back and helpless in the face of a looming predator. Determined to negate her disturbing reaction, she tried to focus on the tablet and asked crisply, "Duties and responsibilities?"

Leave it up to Itachi to explain sex using bullet points.

"Yes," he said. "That's the key to understanding our roles. We're collaborating towards achieving a tangible goal and we have guidelines and milestones to meet."

"I'm not going to sit through a long slide presentation that explains how to have sex," she cleared her throat purposefully but her voice came out strangled. The man was absolutely unbelievable.

"This isn't about the _**how**_," he drawled in deep honeyed tones. "It's more about the _**why**_ and the_** when**_."

Tenten swallowed carefully, stifling a retort. She gazed down at the screen, a mixture of dread and excitement licked through her. Before she could argue, Itachi slid his finger across the surface to reveal the first slide. Her eyes were inexorably drawn to the screen.

He had come up with a full-bore bullet point agenda covering her duties and responsibilities, right down to her diet preferences and clothing choices. It was terribly eye-opening. There were estrogen hormone levels to be tested and she would have to monitor her temperature. And then there was something called the luteal phase, which caused a little chill to run up her spine. The very word sounded vaguely sinister and she wished she had paid more attention in biology class.

Itachi knew an awful deal about the female anatomy; it led her to cower at his experience.

It was all strangely mesmerizing. Gruesome and shocking, but she couldn't look away. The last page was a month-by-month production schedule. Itachi gave her a moment to review it, then said, "Base on what the doctor said, you're scheduled to start ovulating in the next five to seven days."

By this time, Tenten was shaking. She could feel the colour washing out of her face, only to be swiftly replaced by mortified heat.

"I've already rearranged my schedule and decided to work from home."

Knowing that she had nothing to lose—other than what she signed over to him in that contract—she didn't curb her tongue, but her voice was still slightly strangled when it came. "It s-says he-here that we sho-should have s-sex Wednesday night and…and…oh, my," she stammered.

"Continue through to the following Monday night, with Friday and Saturday being the most optimum days." He finished off easily, setting the tablet aside casually.

Tenten shivered slightly despite the treacherous heat curling down low in her abdomen. She had seen enough. More than enough. Her eyes were practically bleeding.

She flushed to the roots of her hair, "It's smart to cover all the bases," she swallowed, intensely conscious of the fact that she was still seated in his lap. "But I think you're going about this too rigidly."

The silence lay still and impenetrable as glass.

"Are you forgetting that we're still not on common ground where the _**how**_ is concerned?" Tenten felt her breasts swell with languorous heaviness. Her nipples pinched tight, as if a current of fire had touched them. She folded her arms over herself in mortified discomfiture. "And frankly, all of this is making me nervous."

"Nerves are never good—" he said thoughtfully, absently skimming this thumb along the soft skin of her arm. "—which is why I've scheduled preliminaries for tonight."

Breathless and trembling, she turned her head and looked at him, lost herself in the brilliance of his shimmering dark eyes. A tide of something terrifying swept over her in a stormy wave. "Preliminaries?"

"To take some of the pressure off," he explained with infuriating cool. "I can't have you seizing up when it counts most."

She couldn't get breath into her lungs. Soft lips parting, she snatched in tiny little pants, drowning against her volition in the power of those compelling dark eyes.

"Tonight?" Tenten protested painfully.

"Tonight," he confirmed without hesitation.

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><p><strong>AN: Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favourites. I still cannot believe the overwhelming response to this story. It means a lot to me :)**

**I'm sorry if this chapter was uneventful. I promise upcoming ones won't be =^.^= And yes Itachi is a very thorough person xD Questions, comments, concerns?**

**Please Review to keep me motivated.**

**In response to an anonymous review regarding the cover art. I actually found it while browsing Itaten on google LOL xD**


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